Becoming a Tourist in Our Own Country (India, 2016)

I got to see a lot of family members on this trip and ventured into Northern India to see my first Wonder of the World!

We started in Mumbai, where I met lots of family members that I hadn’t seen in a while and visited some cool temples (Siddhivinayak). We also saw Shah Rukh Khan’s and Sachin Tendulkar’s huge mansions since they live in Mumbai near the beach. Then, we took a 6-hour train to Vadodara where we met more family (more from my mom’s side), ate some yummy street food (Room Zoom snacks corner, 1000% worth the slightly upset stomach), and saw more temples. We saw the Stambheshwar Mahadev temple, which is located on the beach and disappears underwater during high tide and reemerges during low tide (side note: this chai vendor on the beach had the best chai I’ve ever had).

We then set off to Agra with my nani/nana (maternal grandparents) on the famed Rajdhani Express in first class. It was a great experience with a private room, 3 meals, and clean bathrooms. We gave our extra food to a beggar on the train station who had no legs and used a piece of wood with wheels to get around – definitely something I won’t forget. In Agra, we saw the grand Taj Mahal, which was beautiful and larger in person than expected. The Quaranic verses on the outside of the front seem to be the same size throughout, but the bottom font is actually larger than the top font to make it look like the same size from a distance. I was super anxious about the hot marble floors (since shoes are typically not allowed in religious places), but they gave us shoe coverings and let us keep them on. In Agra, we also saw the Red Fort, built by Mughal emperor Akbar and featured lots of beautiful architecture and amazing views.

Then, we left for Delhi via car and we stopped at this rest stop where they had one of those pedicure stations where the fish ate the dead skin off your feet. Delhi was PACKED and there were tons of cars haphazardly parked in front of store-fronts. We saw the India gate (not to be confused with the Gateway of India!), Humayan’s tomb (had some cool minarets), Raj Ghat (Mahatma Ghandi’s assassination area and memorial, really interesting), Indira Gandhi’s memorial (also really interesting but historically dense), and some MORE family (what a surprise).

We then took the Rajdhani Express (2nd class this time, still pretty luxurious compared to local India trains, but no private room and food only for purchase) back to Vadodara. We were there for the beginning of Uttarayan, a Gujarati kite-flying festival, and I got to fly kites on the terrace and got into a kite “war” with our neighbors (they won and cut my kite string:( ). We visited a temple next door where men and women were separate (my first time seeing that type of stuff), and ate some more great food, including ponk, a Gujarat speciality made from millet, and Room Zoom again.

We made our way back to Mumbai and visited the naval docks and went into an active submarine. It was cool to see the weaponry and how the crew lived. After some classic Bombay Sizzlers, it was finally time to leave and fly back to Dallas through Dubai on Emirates, which was an overall great experience (aside from the full day of travel).

Takeaways

• Taj Mahal is magnificent and not that juxtaposed with poverty as people say
• Street food is always worth the risk to stomach issues, as long as it’s hot or from a somewhat-trusty source
• Mumbai and Delhi mightttt have a slight problem with land and resource allocation when billionaires and the prime ministers live next to overcrowded slums
• The country has changed a bunch in the past 4-5 years and no doubt will change a whole lot more.

Fuzzy was banned from the Taj Mahal (because his eyes could be used to scratch out jewels?), but he tagged along everywhere else!